With Captain Kumamon for company, I made up a picnic lunch and headed for Cambridge.  I’ve been there before – back in 1978, on my first trip to the UK.  According to the giant scrap book that I compiled (complete with airline menus, paper slippers, and even a pebble from Brighton Beach), we went there on a day trip from London.  I barely remember it, apart from the interior of the incredible Kings College chapel. Time to re-acquaint myself.

I drove to a nearby Park & Ride, left the car for the day, and alighted “The Busway” – a cross between a bus and a tram.  These vehicles travel on roads just like normal buses, but they also take to the Guided Busway – a car free fixed track from Huntington to the outskirts of Cambridge.  From my upper deck seat, I had good views of the fenlands that we were crossing.  While the Captain was at pains to point out that a shinkansen would have done the job in a fraction of the time, he did enjoy a unique form of transport.

One of the first things I found was a lunch spot just for the Captain.  At the time, I was being accosted by attractive young men with muscled arms, inviting me to join them on a punt along the river. Sadly the invitations were not for me alone, nor were champagne or strawberries on offer.  Eschewing the romantic idyll of paying large amounts of money to join dozens of fellow tourists, I continued on foot.

Cambridge is not the easiest city for pedestrians.  Narrow, crowded streets, bicycles and small vans everywhere, women inexplicably clutching tiny dogs, groups of visitors trundling suitcases across cobbles – it was a battle.  The geography doesn’t help – there are not many bridges over the river, and the eastern banks are pretty much out of bounds, unless you pay to enter the most famous colleges, whose grounds extend to the waterfront.  There are large fences and forbidding gates everywhere – no admittance unless you are wearing a magic lanyard, or you are prepared to pay admission for each one.

I managed to catch glimpses inside some of the Colleges, and Trinity College does give you a good view of its famous courtyard, ruled over by Henry VIII with his chair leg sceptre.  Outside the Great Gate is a descendent of the famous gravity-inspiring apple tree (the original was in Lincolnshire).

Eventually I found a river crossing, and after devouring my sandwiches, I wandered south along The Backs.  By now I was realising why punting is so popular – it is definitely the best way to get the views.

Admiring the Mathematical Bridge, and the spectacular Kings College, I wended my way down tiny lanes. I was in search of the wonderful Whipple Museum of The History of Science.  Robert Whipple was an avid collector of  1000 scientific instruments and artefacts, from conventional items like astrolabes and microscopes; and more obscure things like sets of horses teeth!  This amazing collection features such treasures as Darwin’s microscope, right through to the first electron microscope, invented here in Cambridge. Notably, the original site of the famous Cavendish Laboratory, where DNA was discovered (among many other mind blowing achievements), is next door.

I didn’t fall in love with Cambridge as a city, but I couldn’t help feeling awed and inspired at the centuries of academic feats that have taken place here.  And although Newton was known to recline pensively under apple trees, I’m not sure he would have forked out to go punting.